Love is Lovelier

by Donna Simonetta

  There was a brief silence, and when he spoke, Billy’s voice sounded older than the excited boy he’d sounded like initially. “I know. And it means a lot of angry bullshit here, but I can’t work in that mine for the rest of my life like my dad has. I just can’t! This might be my ticket out, and I’d be an idiot not to take it.”

  “But it’s going to be rough, especially with your dad and Danny.”

  “I know, but Mick did it; I can too.”

  “It hasn’t been easy for Mick though…”

  “And this might make it worse for him. I don’t want to make things uglier between Mick and my dad, but what if this is the only chance I get? I don’t want to let it slip away.”

  “At least you can talk to Ed Miller about the job. Maybe after you do, you won’t even be interested in it.”

  “I really doubt it; working on cars all day sounds great!”

  “Remember you’ll be away from home for the first time. I was more homesick than I expected to be when I moved to Portland,” Heather warned.

  “I’ll have you and Mick there.” Billy’s voice sounded happy and confident once again.

  After chatting a few more minutes, they hung up, and Heather gulped. What had she put in motion here? When she heard about the mechanic’s job, she’d thought of Billy right away, but didn’t consider the long-term repercussions until later. Mick’s father was going to be furious, both with Billy and with Mick. And Mick would more than likely be furious with her.

  She took a deep breath and picked her textbook back up. If she survived finals with all the craziness going on right now in her normally placid life, it would be a freaking miracle.

  ****

  Mick rubbed his sore jaw. “I guess I deserved that.”

  “You deserved more than just one punch, you sorry son of a bitch, but you’re my friend so I don’t have it in me to give you a full-on beat down.” Jeff rubbed his knuckles. “We’re talking about my kid sister; I had to do something! I mean, seriously man, of all the women in the world, why did you have to mess around with one of my sisters?”

  “It’s not like that, Jeff, I wasn’t just messing around with Heather. I really care about her.”

  Jeff shook his head and continued as if Mick hadn’t spoken, “I know I followed the same M.O., before I met Maggie. You keep things light, make sure the girl knows the score, and nobody gets hurt. But I never—never—messed with a buddy’s sister!”

  Mick felt his own fists clench, and he fought against the urge to pop Jeff in the face for thinking the worst of him. “I told you, it wasn’t like that with Heather. I really like her.”

  “Then why are you dating Gloria fucking Peterson?” Jeff growled.

  “Because Heather dumped me!” Mick shouted in frustration. “Heather broke up with me, and I know she deserves someone better than me, so I thought I’d make things easier for her and go out with Gloria fucking Peterson. Happy now?”

  Jeff raked his hands through his already messy hair, making it stick up even more. “Shit, man, of course it doesn’t make me happy. I’m sorry.”

  Mick raised an eyebrow. “You’re sorry she dumped my ass? You socked me in the jaw for dating her, and now you’re sorry she broke things off with me?”

  “Hell yeah, I’m sorry! If you really care about her, that’s a whole different thing. You’d be one of the few guys on the planet who is just barely good enough for my sister. I don’t know what this bullshit is you’re spouting about her deserving someone better.” Jeff narrowed his eyes. “Is it Chase? Is he why she broke up with you? Because, I like him, but I don’t think he’ll ever settle down. She’s just gonna end up hurt by him. You’re definitely a better alternative than Chase.”

  Mick opened his mouth to stretch it out, and flinched when he rubbed the tender flesh where he suspected he was going to have a helluva bruise later. “Then I’d hate to be Chase when you catch up to him, if this is what you do to the guy you think is better for your sister.”

  “So it is because of Chase?”

  Mick shrugged. “I don’t think so. She talked a lot about my shortcomings, so I think she broke up with me on account of me—not Chase, or even Ty.”

  “Ty?” Jeff’s jaw dropped to the floor. “What the hell does Ty have to do with anything?”

  “She’s dating him too. I saw them out to dinner with each other last night, and she’s going to spend this vacation with him. Not with Chase, and most definitely not with me.”

  “You think she’s on vacation with Ty? Tyler Harris? About 5’11’, reddish-brown hair?”

  “Yeah, that’s him. Bethanne’s brother.”

  Jeff’s slow grin was firmly back in place on his face. “I know who Ty Harris is. He’s one of my closest friends.”

  Mick scowled. “Your best friend, Heather’s best friend’s brother, how fucking cozy and perfect for all of you if Heather and Ty end up together.”

  “Put the green-eyed monster back in his cage, buddy. Ty is all of those things, and a great guy to boot, but there’s no way he’s dating Heather.”

  “I saw it with my own eyes. You’re not the best judge; let’s face it, you didn’t think she was dating me either, and she was.”

  Jeff laughed a deep, hearty rumble that shook his broad shoulders. When he got enough breath to speak, he wheezed out, “Ty is gonna love this when I tell him.”

  “Tell him what?”

  “That big, tough, icy Mick Evans got his panties in a wad with jealousy over Ty’s affair with Heather!” A fresh bout of laughter overcame Jeff at the words, and he had to bend over at the waist to catch his breath.

  “Want to let the man you just punched in the face in on the joke?”

  “Ty and Heather are friends—good ones—but they’ll never be anything more, because Ty is as gay as the day is long. He’s much more likely to be interested in dating you than he is in Heather.”

  Chapter 18

  Heather drove up the gravel drive winding through the woods; her emotions were confused. On the one hand, she was excited beyond belief to have just taken her last final exam. Barring unforeseen flunkage, she’d be graduating from college at long last. On the other hand, her stomach clenched as she considered what it might mean for her—should she stay at the Retreat? Or even in Rivers Bend? This was her home, and the idea of leaving its comforting arms made her feel queasy. She consoled herself by thinking she didn’t have to make any big decisions immediately.

  The light got brighter as she pulled into the clearing in front of the cabin Mick was temporarily calling home. Magda had stayed here before she’d moved into Bethanne and Cisco’s little cottage, when they moved into their new home, musical houses, Rivers Bend style. The rustic cabin she approached was shaded by tall trees, and through her open car windows she could hear the river rushing by just beyond the cabin.

  Boy she was dreading this conversation with Mick. She’d put it off long enough, maybe she’d waited too long, but she’d set the wheels in motion for Billy, and she needed to smooth the way for him as much as possible. She wondered if the brothers had spoken yet. They hadn’t as of her last conversation with Billy, but he might’ve called Mick today.

  She took a deep breath and pushed her oversized, round sunglasses up on her head as she got out the car. In the distance she heard the muted sounds of music and laughter from the cocktail party one of the Retreat groups had scheduled for tonight by the pool, which was located just through the woods from Mick’s cabin.

  “Heather. This is an unexpected surprise.”

  Mick’s deep voice rumbled from the shadows on his porch, and she jumped at the sound. She hadn’t seen him in the shadows.

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. I thought you knew I was here.” Mick unfolded his long body from the Adirondack chair where he had been sprawled; he walked to the top step and leaned against the post.

  Heather’s mouth went dry, and other parts of her body got wet, at the sight of him. Mick must have taken a shower right after work, his no
rmally immaculate hair was still wet and unstyled; he wore a pair of loose, low-slung athletic shorts. That was it…just shorts. His feet were bare and so was his muscled chest, still damp from his shower on this humid, late spring evening.

  He took a sip of the bottle of beer he held loosely in one hand. She tried to swallow, but her throat was the Sahara. She knew she had to speak, was all too aware she was just standing here like some mute geekazoid, but the sight of a half-naked Mick, combined with the post-finals muzziness of her brain, left her completely unable to think of a blessed thing to say.

  “Can I get you one of these?” Mick tilted the green bottle in her direction.

  Grateful for some conversational guidance, Heather smiled. “No, thank you. I’m on my way out to dinner with the girls to celebrate taking my last final today.”

  “The girls?”

  “Bethanne, Deidre, Maggie and my nieces, Sam and Caitlin.”

  “Sounds like fun.”

  “Yes, I’m really looking forward to it.”

  After a brief silence, when she didn’t say anything else, he said, “Not to be rude or anything, but why are you here, Heather?”

  Not to jump your very fine bones, no sirree, bub! Okay…some thoughts were best left unsaid. “I needed to talk to you about something.”

  Mick flopped back into his chair and stretched his long legs out in front of him. Heather walked up the three steps, and sat on the top one, with her back resting against the post.

  “That’s interesting, because there’s something I wanted to talk to you about too.”

  His icy voice took her by surprise. It was at odds with his relaxed body language. True, they hadn’t spoken since she’d told him they needed to cool it between them, if you didn’t count the awkward meeting at the country club, and Heather didn’t. But she wasn’t expecting the deep freeze from him.

  Curious about what had crawled up his butt and died, Heather said, “Okay, you first.”

  He took a swig, his eyes smoldering as he looked at her over the bottle as he drank. “Fine. I’ll go first. Why the hell didn’t you tell me Ty Harris was gay?”

  Heather blinked. She’d been braced for him to tear into her about interfering with his family, by getting Billy the interview with Ed Miller at the garage. She was not expecting a discussion of her friend’s sexuality.

  “It never occurred to me to tell you?” Her confusion at the sharp left turn into Weirdsville their conversation had taken, turned her statement into a question.

  “It was easier to let me think you were on a date with him last Sunday? And that you were going on vacation with him this week?”

  She wrinkled her nose and frowned. “I never told you either of those things.”

  “No, but you certainly didn’t tell me they weren’t true.”

  “I never told you the Earth wasn’t flat either, because I thought you were intelligent enough to figure it out on your own. Clearly, I was wrong about you.”

  “But Gloria said—”

  “Gloria?” Her voice sounded shrill, even to her own ears, and she tried to modulate it. “Gloria is the one who made you think Ty and I had a thing going on?”

  “She said some of it right in front of you; you didn’t correct her.”

  “Because I didn’t hear her! I try to tune Gloria out as much as possible when she talks. It’s kind of like when Petunia is after a squirrel—she yaps and yaps, but after a while it just becomes white noise to me.”

  “Oh.”

  “Why does it matter to you whether or not Ty is gay? I didn’t have you pegged as a homophobe.”

  “I’m not. Ty seems like a good guy, and he could be sleeping with the whole starting line-up of the Pintos for all I care, but I thought you were on a date with him, going away with him on vacation…”

  Heather held up her hand to cut him off. “And it would matter to you why? Those are ideas you got from your date. From the woman you were still with from the night before…”

  “No, I wasn’t,” he interrupted.

  At his quiet denial, relief flooded through her, relief she had no business feeling, since she had been the one to break up with Mick. He was free to see whomever he chose, even if it was Ghastly Gloria. Still. It felt good to know he hadn’t spent Saturday night with Glo.

  “You weren’t?”

  “No. I hadn’t seen her since I dropped her off at home after the benefit Saturday night.”

  The feeling of relief grew. “I thought you were spending the night in Baltimore, and having breakfast with her sister Sunday morning.”

  “We weren’t, and we never planned to. Why would you think that?”

  “Gloria told me.”

  One side of his mouth turned up in a way that turned her insides to jelly. “Gloria. The same one you told me you never listen to? The one whose voice is just background noise to you? She told you these things, and you simply believed her?” He stopped and stared past her, and then shook his head slowly. “But I have to admit you weren’t the only one who took something she said at face value. Did you and Chase spend the night together at the hotel in Baltimore on Saturday?”

  She blushed and turned her face away from him. “No, but I might’ve let Gloria think we did after she told me you were spending the night with her. I shared a room with my mom at the hotel. Chase stayed somewhere else.”

  He put the beer bottle on the table next to him, and wiped the condensation on his hands from it on his shorts. “Looks like we both had some mistaken ideas about how quickly we’d each moved on.”

  “Looks like.”

  They sat in silence for a few moments. The music from the party drifted through the woods to them, old Motown.

  Heather was irritated she had fallen for Gloria’s lies hook, line, and sinker. She should’ve known it wasn’t true, and the other woman would try to stir up trouble between Mick and her.

  “How did your exams go?” he asked with genuine interest.

  Heather had two brothers, so she wasn’t too surprised from his point of view that the moment was over and the discussion was closed. Two women would’ve talked it to death. She smiled at the thought. She always had been enough of a tomboy to like the men’s way better.

  “Pretty well, I think.” She sat in the sun, and he was shadowed by the overhang of the porch, so she just noticed the bruise on his strong jaw line. “What happened to your face?”

  “I walked into something.”

  “Into what?”

  He grinned ruefully. “Your brother’s fist.”

  Her head fell back and thumped against the post. “Jeff did that to you? Why? What the hell is going on at work? I knew I shouldn’t have taken this week off.”

  “It wasn’t a work-related disagreement. It was more of a…well…you-related dispute.”

  She gasped and covered her mouth with her hand. “Oh God, Mick, I’m so sorry!”

  “It’s a big brother’s prerogative. I knew going into it with you that getting socked in the face by Jeff was inevitable.” A slow grin spread across his face. “It was worth it.”

  “You two have been fighting all week?”

  “No. This happened on Monday, and we’re guys. I dated his sister. He punched me in the face. Problem resolved. Back to work.”

  She shook her head in disbelief. “Men are such simple creatures.”

  “Yep.” He nodded agreement. “What did you need to talk to me about?”

  She bit her bottom lip. Here it was, the topic she was dreading discussing with him. “Have you talked to Billy this week?”

  “My brother? No. Why? Is everything all right at home?”

  “Yes! Nothing’s wrong.” Her words came out in a breathless rush to reassure him. She paused before adding, “Not wrong, precisely. In fact, it might turn out to be good news.”

  Mick pulled his legs up and straightened his posture in his chair. “Now you’re making me nervous.”

  “I got my oil changed last week at Miller’s Garage. Have you met Ed Mille
r yet?”

  Mick’s forehead wrinkled. “You have totally lost me. How did we get from something going on with my family to your oil change at Miller’s Garage?”

  “Ed is getting older; he’s starting to think about retirement, and he has no one to pass the garage on to. He asked if I knew a young mechanic who might be interested in working with him and eventually taking over the business. Right away, I thought of—”

  “Billy.” He finished her sentence and clipped the name so short, his jaw snapped shut, and his teeth clicked together.

  “Yes.” The word caught and she cleared her throat before repeating it with more force, “Yes. I called Billy to tell him about the opportunity.” She peered up at him through her choppy bangs. “He didn’t call you?”

  “I had a voicemail from him, but it’s been so crazy at work without you this week, by the way, on Monday I need to talk to you about a raise, you totally deserve one. I haven’t had the chance to call him back. I was going to give him a buzz tonight. Why do you ask? Is there something more you need to tell me?”

  “He spoke to Ed, and they hit it off over the phone. Billy’s coming to Rivers Bend next week to interview with him in person.”

  Mick ran his hand over his jaw without thinking, and winced when he got to the bruise. This woman was causing all kinds of pain and turmoil in his life. Again. “What you’re telling me is Billy is going to quit the mine to move to Rivers Bend and become a mechanic.”

  “He’s coming to see if he’d like it; he might not want to do it after the visit.”

  Mick raised his eyebrows. “Are you kidding me? Of course he’s going to want this job. It’s what he’s wanted to do since the first time he touched a car engine, and I have to admit it would be nice to have him here, but the old man is gonna be pissed.”

  “With both of you?”

  Mick inclined his head and lifted the bottle off the table. Before he drank from it, he looked at her over the lip of the bottle. “With all of us. Don’t think not being an Evans will help you escape my old man’s wrath, Miss Braden.”